The end of May, the tenth book in my AGAINST series, AGAINST THE WILD, is being released. This is the first of three books about the rugged Brodie brothers of Alaska. Being plot-oriented, I usually work through the story from start to finish, then figure out where the best place is going to be for… Read more »
Have you been talking about finishing that draft but never seem to find the time to do it? Is there a story you’ve been dying to write but somehow life always gets in the way? Don’t worry, we’ve been there and we totally get how you feel. This is why DIY MFA is hosting another Writing… Read more »
Recently, I read the novel Great, a modernized YA adaptation of The Great Gatsby set in the East Hamptons., as opposed to the fictitious East and West Egg. The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel, so I read with trepidation. Taking a story that everyone knows and making it your own isn’t a small endeavor…. Read more »
Ok, so we’ve established that you really need to hire a freelance editor before you throw your manuscript out to the proverbial wolves of public opinion. But how in the heck do you know what kind of editing you need? And who in the world do you find to help you? What can your editor… Read more »
“I just read a friend’s story, and I don’t really like it. She’s pressuring me for feedback. What should I say?” –Backed Into a Corner Remember how two weeks ago, I compared receiving critique to helping your child enter a beauty pageant? Now imagine you’re a random onlooker, who knows nothing about pageants or kids, and… Read more »
Think about the first time you fell in love. I was a skinny little 14-year-old who had yet to take drivers education, and back then, passing notes in class was still a thing. If your experience was anything like mine, then there were a lot of sweaty palms, awkward e-confessions such as “I want you… Read more »
As National Poetry Month draws to a close, here’s a closer look at a special form of poem that can be useful for poets and prose writers. A prose poem is a poem written in sentences. It appears as a block of text without line breaks. You could think of a prose poem as a… Read more »
You’ve been slaving for months, maybe years, writing 1000 words a day or fitting in a few paragraphs whenever you have a spare moment. You’ve written and rewritten scenes, sections, chapters to get them just right, spent hours researching the cultural habits of obscure tribes in the Amazon (or wherever your inspiration came from), all… Read more »
“Nobody in my critique group understands my writing style. They don’t get the type of art I’m trying to create. Do I suck at writing, or should I listen to them? What should I do?” –Artist in a Sea of Mediocrity I’ve never been to a pageant, and I’ve never been a mother, but I’d… Read more »
Here at DIY MFA, we love to share exciting new books and up-and-coming authors with our audience – you! That’s why I started New Spin, a bi-monthly DIY MFA column that covers everything that falls within alternative storytelling and new approaches to reading books: literary mash-ups, books that put a new spin on classic stories… Read more »
